Meet the Author: Iain M Banks

20 October 2010 Last updated at 15:06 BST

As part of the BBC News Meet The Author interviews, Iain M Banks discusses his new Culture novel Surface Detail.

Banks spoke to Nick Higham about why he thinks science fiction is the most important genre, how he juggles scifi with writing mainstream fiction, his fascination with artificial intelligence and why he is writing more books than ever.